It was a total blast. I got to see some old favorites, like Port City Brewing and Bold Rock. I made plans for Oct. 21. I met Pope Blairius, leader of the Church of Beertology. Flying Dog gave me a straight-up beergasm with their impossible-to-find seasonal, The Fear. (Seriously, I’d put that bad boy up there with my otherfavorites.) I got to see Ben give a talk on the “Gonzo roots of Flying Dog and the culture of craft beer.” Even the lines were pretty much non-existent. The only exception was, of course, the food line — but really? Eat before you go, guys. It’s a BEER festival. Like an of-age boy scout, you should be prepared.

Okay, that’s enough exposition — let’s get down to it. I tasted a lot of beers, and here’s what I thought:

Obviously, I didn’t get to try everything — and I want to try things like the Great Pumpkin by Heavy Seas again. But it’s impossible with large-scale events like this. I even missed out on one of my favorites, Fordham Brewing, because they were the other exception to the no-line rule the couple of times I swung around their way. Plus, it’s easy to cross from Classy Beer Taster to having serious, legitimate concerns about being able to say the alphabet in the correct order if you’re not careful. And being the proper gal that I am, I had to draw the line somewhere.